Political leaders met President, seek justice for 1984 anti-Sikh riots victims

NEW DELHI: Seeking justice for the victims of 1984 anti-Sikh riots, leaders of various political parties today met President Pranab Mukherjee and sought his intervention in directing the government to order a Supreme Court-monitored SIT probe into the violence.

Top leaders of BJP and Shiromani Akali Dal, alongwith those of Shiv Sena, Samajwadi Party, TDP, JMM, INLD, BJD and JD-U handed over a memorandum to President Mukherjee, asking him to direct the Central government for acceptance of their demands in addressing the grievances of the Sikh community.

The leaders including L K Advani and Sushma Swaraj, who came together at the initiative of Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, demanded an independent and impartial probe through a Special Investigation Team(SIT) in the 1984 'sikh genocide'.

They also demanded that the investigation be monitored by the Supreme Court and that the role of police officers in the riots be also probed, as to how they did not register FIRs and did not prosecute the guilty properly that led to their acquittal.

"We requested the President that today the whole nation is looking at him, because we feel the present government will not give justice. Since 29 years when this murder of thousands of people took place in Delhi. Innocents were murdered, children were murdered, women were murdered, old people were murdered, (but) not a single person has been put behind bars," Punjab's deputy chief minister Sukhbir Badal told reporters after meeting the President.

Today's meeting came against the backdrop of the public outcry over the acquittal of Congress leader Sajjan Kumar in an anti-Sikh riots case by the court. Sikhs are protesting against his acquittal and demanding reopening of the case against him along with action against the other guilty of 1984 riots.